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Dissident priest says reformers hopeful, but unsure of Pope Francis

FILE -- Catholic priest Father Helmut Schuller, co-founder of the Preachers' Initiative, speaks during an appearance at the National Press Club July 22, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee, Getty Images North America)

Pope Francis set the world debating whether his candid and concilatory remarks Monday on gays and women in the Catholic Church represent a new direction or simply a kindlier tone.

Archdiocese of Denver spokeswoman Karna Swanson said the pope's comment — "who am I to judge" gay clergy — was "definitely not a departure" from Catholic teaching. It has always called for respect and compassion for those with same-sex attractions, she said, but doesn't sanction homosexual acts.

Others aren't so sure the remarks don't foreshadow change.

Reformist Roman Catholic Austrian priest Helmut Schüller, in Denver Monday calling for an end to the global priest shortage through ordination of married men and women, also supports a more open and inclusive church for the LGBT community.

"The pope is sending out a lot of symbols and signals, but will he turn the symbols and signals into systemic change? That, we don't know," Schuller said an interview Monday with The Denver Post. "There are more steps necessary than speaking mercifully. It has to be done from a perspective of justice, not mercy."

Swanson said all Catholics are called by the church "to lead lives of chastity," not just gay people. "It is a difficult teaching for all people to follow."

After decades-long declines in the numbers of priests and nuns, the clergy-abuse scandals and an exodus of Catholics from the church they grew up in, Schüller is calling for a new moral teaching .

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Schüller, founder of the Austrian Priests' Initiative, is on a 15-city U.S. tour called "The Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations," which included a stop in Denver at Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church. Schuller has said that, as a 60-year-old parish priest, he fears the hierarchy's policies have diminshed parish life.

The 2013 book, "American Catholics in Transition," reports there was one priest for every 652 Catholics in 1950. By 2010, there was one priest for every 1,653 Catholics.

Once vicar general for Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Schuller spearheaded a 2011 reform movement in Europe, a "Call to Disobedience," which led to criticism from Pope Benedict XVI and the stripping of his monsignor title.

However, he said, he remains a priest in good standing and will not leave Catholicism.

"It's my church. It's not an apartment. It's not a corporation. I'm part of the church," Schuller said. "The church is not the property of the bishops. To me, the church is built up daily by the people."

His tour is sponsored by 10 progressive Catholic organizations, including Dignity Denver, which advocates that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics are equal members of "Christ's mystical body."

Schuller supports a host of practical reforms, such as more involvement in parish life, including preaching by qualified lay people and permitting gay couples and divorced and remarried Catholics to participate fully in the sacraments.

Swanson said in the media reaction to the pope's comments on gay clergy overshadowed other comments.

"He is calling for a more profound understanding of the role of women in the church," Swanson said.

However, Francis also said the church, through Pope John Paul II invoking papal infallibity in forbidding ordination of women, has closed that door.

Schuller said it should be reopened — women were among leaders of the early church.

Schuller said he finds an interesting perspective in another comment by Francis, which he paraphrased: "The shepherd should smell like the sheep."

There are some gaps between the pulpit and pews, according to "American Catholics in Transition," a 2011 study by researchers at The Catholic University of America, the Department of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

• Only 35 percent of Catholics said the church's teaching on same-sex marriage matters to them.

• Only 31 percent said you can't be a good Catholic without following church teaching on marriage, divorce and remarriage.

• Fewer still, 22 percent think they should obey church rules on contraception.

• And only 21 percent care about preserving a celibate male clergy.

• About 86 percent of Catholics say they believe they can disagree with aspects of church teaching and still remain loyal to mother church despite being disdained by leaders as "cafeteria Catholics."

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